User:Brown17/Beni Hasan

Beni Hasan
(also written as Bani Hasan, or also Beni-Hassan)

Located south of the Faiyum, 170 miles north of Cairo on the east bank of the Nile, Beni Hasan is one of the most important Middle Kingdom provincial necropolis between Asyut and Memphis. This settlement is dated from the 11th and 12th Dynasty as established by Percy E. Newberry.

The Great Inscription of Khnemhotep II is sculptured around the lower part of the walls of his tomb and consists of at least 222 lines. It records how the 12th Dynasty Kings reorganized the nomes in this region to their ancient boundaries and defined the territories of their cities. To the north was the Jackal or Cynopolite nome, and to the south was the Hare or Hemopolite nome. Some idea of the population can be deduced from the rallying of a troop consisting of 600 men under Amenemhat including “every valient man of the Oryx nome.” Also, the thriving and prosperous conditions of the province can be inferred from the biographical inscription in Amenemhat’s tomb which says there is not to be found “a hungry man in it.”  There was also an annual tax of three thousand bulls collected from the herdsmen of the nome.

During the same time as the height of Beni Hasan in 12th Dynasty there was an ongoing threat of invasion from abroad, especially the Asiatics from the Northeast. These Asiatics were found in a number of Middle Kingdom texts suggesting their growing power within the culture; they where infiltrating the Egyptian borders by means of nomadic pastoralists, workers seeking to escape famine, and traders in caravans.

Beni Hasan is probably best known for its Middle Kingdom tombs such as Amenemhat, who was governor of the 16th province of Upper Egypt, and Khnumhotep, an admistrator of the Eastern desert for King Senwosret II. These large tombs were built during the 11th and 12th Dynasty by various rulers and officials of the Oryx Nome (16th Nome of Upper Egypt) representing their independence of authority and control of resources. The rock temple of Pakhet by Hatshepsut is also located in Beni Hasan.

Those that were buried at Beni Hasan include Khnemhotep, Baqt I (the earliest of the “Great Chiefs of the Oryx Nome), Baqt II, Remushenta, Khety, Khnemhotep I, Nekht, Khnemhotep II, Nekht II, Khnemhotep III, and the family of Amenemhat.

These Nomarchs owed allegiance to the Pharaoh but were in fact, each within the limits of his own province, absolute rulers over the lives and property of the people in their district. However, their duty to the Pharaoh was to preserve the existing boundaries of the area, regulate the work of irrigation, and gather fighting men if needed.

Tombs
The tombs at Beni Hasan are grouped into two ranges facing the west: the upper range still has chambers remaining over tomb-shafts and the lower range is made up of only sunken shafts. The principal tombs are entered through large doorways in the rock, and form spacious and comparatively well-light rooms supported by columns.

In total there have been 39 tombs discovered at Beni Hasan, and only 12 were finished with inscriptions and eight of them belonged to the “Great Overlords of the Oryx nome.” These tombs are carved into limestone cliffs near the provincial capital. The basic structure and design includes an outer court, rock-cut pillared room, and shaft leaving the room to the burial chamber. There has also been evidence of a series of courts, porticos, and passageways leading from the tomb across the low desert. In general, the tomb chamber was to the south of the shaft almost without exception at Beni Hasan. The function of the tomb chapel remained the same from the Old Kingdom: to provide successful travels into the afterlife and to provide for them an unfailing supply of provisions. The tombs built by the Nomarchs were quite impressive and portray their socio-political positions within the social power structure. Out of all the tombs, Amenemhat is one of the largest tombs while the tomb of Khnumhotep II demonstrates the highest craftsmanship.

In the Middle Kingdom, statues themselves were placed within the tomb chapel at the back providing a focal point for the cult. One example of this is in Khnumhotep’s tomb which once contained the depiction of the deceased in a niche on the rear wall of the tomb chapel. Also, there have only been four incidences where the shrine was found to have a statue of the deceased still present.

Inside the tomb it was usual to represent the entrance into the underworld with a “false door,” which was often done with great elaboration. The “false door” is present nine times at Beni Hasan, represented both in relief and by paint. During this time family members were beginning to be present on funerary stelae and “biographical text.” The coffins were plain boxes or sarcophigi, in which the noble had highly painted patterns and designs, with portions of the Book of the Dead in hieratic. There were two burials from the 11th Dynasty that were found intact and the bodies were mummified and laid straight with the head to the north.

Below the tombs of the Middle Kingdom elites, are older tombs and burial chambers that go back to the 6th Dynasty. Just south of Beni Hasan is Speos Artemidos, which is a rock cut temple dedicated to the local lioness goddess Pakhet. This was commissioned and built by Queen Hatshepsut. It bears a long dedicatory text in the architrave including her famous denunciation of the Hyksos.

Decoration
Many scenes from the tombs are in poor condition today. These include paintings of architectural ornamentation, scenes of “daily life,” and some of the larger tombs contain biographical inscriptions. The paint was brushed on a thin coat of fine-grained plaster since the natural limestone was too absorbent. The typical pigments found in the tombs are: red, blue, yellow, green, black, and white.

These scenes are comparable to those from elite tombs from the Old Kingdom which depicted craft activities, agriculture, hunting, fishing, etc. Within the array of scenes, there are also those that display conflict and interactions abroad. In particular, Khnumhotep II’s tomb displays a well-known scene of Asiatic traders coming into Egypt led by their chief Abisha, and of prisoners of war being taken back to Egypt from military campaigns abroad. Among these scenes are ones referencing the procession to the sacred shrines of Osiris at Abydos in Upper Egypt, and at Busiris in the Delta.

Conclusion
Beni Hasan was one of the most provincial sites in its region during the Middle Kingdom. Much can be learned from the tombs of these Nomarchs. They throw light upon the governmental practices in the region. The decoration of these tombs displays what was taking place historically at the time, in daily life, the afterlife, and of these rulers and officials in the context of how they saw themselves fitting into the history of the region. Each “daily life” scene is an insight into the practices, dress, activities, and processes of how things were done.